To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5G or pre-5G communication system. Therefore, the 5G or pre-5G communication system is also called a ‘Beyond 4G Network’ or a ‘Post LTE System’. The 5G communication system is considered to be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands, so as to accomplish higher data rates. To decrease propagation loss of the radio waves and increase the transmission distance, the beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, an analog beam forming, large scale antenna techniques are discussed in 5G communication systems. In addition, in 5G communication systems, development for system network improvement is under way based on advanced small cells, cloud Radio Access Networks (RANs), ultra-dense networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, moving network, cooperative communication, Coordinated Multi-Points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation and the like. In the 5G system, Hybrid FSK and QAM Modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as an advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multi carrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as an advanced access technology have been developed.
The Internet, which is a human centered connectivity network where humans generate and consume information, is now evolving to the Internet of Things (IoT) where distributed entities, such as things, exchange and process information without human intervention. The Internet of Everything (IoE), which is a combination of the IoT technology and the Big Data processing technology through connection with a cloud server, has emerged. As technology elements, such as “sensing technology”, “wired/wireless communication and network infrastructure”, “service interface technology”, and “Security technology” have been demanded for IoT implementation, a sensor network, a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication, Machine Type Communication (MTC), and so forth have been recently researched. Such an IoT environment may provide intelligent Internet technology services that create a new value to human life by collecting and analyzing data generated among connected things. IoT may be applied to a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services through convergence and combination between existing Information Technology (IT) and various industrial applications.
In line with this, various attempts have been made to apply 5G communication systems to IoT networks. For example, technologies such as a sensor network, Machine Type Communication (MTC), and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication may be implemented by beamforming, MIMO, and array antennas. Application of a cloud Radio Access Network (RAN) as the above-described Big Data processing technology may also be considered to be as an example of convergence between the 5G technology and the IoT technology.
A universal integrated circuit card (UICC), which is a smart card inserted into a mobile communication terminal, stores personal information of a mobile communication subscriber, such as network access authentication information, a phone number list, and an SMS, and performs subscriber authentication and traffic security key generation when a connection is made to a mobile communication network, such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, etc., thereby making it possible to stably use mobile communication. The UICC may be embedded with a communication application, such as a subscriber identification module (SIM), a universal SIM (USIM), an IP multimedia SIM (ISIM), etc., according to the type of a mobile communication network to which a subscriber connects. In addition, the UICC provides a higher level security function for loading various applications, such as an electronic wallet, ticketing, an electronic passport, etc.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example connection method of a mobile communication network by a detachable UICC that can be inserted into and detached from a terminal and a connection method of a mobile communication network by an embedded UICC (eUICC) embedded in a terminal according to this disclosure.
Referring to FIG. 1, in the connection method (left side) of a mobile communication network by an existing detachable UICC, a UICC (USIM) is inserted into a terminal (101), and then a connection is made to a mobile network operator (MNO) using various communication applications embedded in the UICC, such a SIM, a USIM, an ISIM, etc., according to the type of the mobile communication network (102), thereby receiving a mobile communication service.
In contrast, in the connection method (right side) of a mobile communication network using an eUICC (eSIM), a profile is remotely installed first using On The Air (OTA) technology based on a short message service (SMS). To this end, a connection is made to MNO2 using a provisioning profile which is pre-stored in the eUICC (103). When a user of a terminal downloads an operating profile of an MNO to which he/she has subscribed and installs the operating profile (104), the terminal may connect to a mobile communication network (105).
FIG. 2 is an example schematic diagram for explaining a process of installing a profile using the eUICC of FIG. 1 according to this disclosure.
Referring to FIG. 2, a terminal 200 for installation of a profile includes a controller 201 and an eUICC 202. When a user applies for the use of a mobile communication network of a mobile network operator (MNO), the MNO 220 makes a request for creating a profile to a subscription manager (SM) server 210 that creates and manages a profile to be installed in the eUICC 202 of the terminal 200. Specifically, the MNO 220 requests a subscription manager data preparation (SM-DP) to create a profile, and the SM-DP 211 creates a profile, namely, a SIM application which is packaged in a software format (SIM Creation). The SM-DP 211 transfers, to a subscription manager secure routing (SM-SR) 212, the created profile (SIM) in an encrypted form. The SM-SR 212 transmits an SMS as a trigger for profile downloading to an MSISDN of the terminal 200 to which the eUICC 202 is mounted based on OTA technology. At this time, an MSISDN of a provisioning profile, which is a profile pre-loaded in the eUICC 202, is used in the transmission of the SMS. The controller 201 of the terminal 200 receiving the SMS forwards, to the eUICC 202, the SMS loaded into a C-APDU packet format which is defined in the ISO-7816 standard. The C-APDU for this purpose is referred to as ENVELOPE (SMS-PP DOWNLOAD) and is defined as a method for triggering an OTA session using an SMS in the 3GPP standard. The eUICC 202 receiving the ENVELOPE (SMS-PP DOWNLOAD) C-APDU extracts the SMS by parsing it and decodes data fields of the corresponding SMS using an OTA key thereof. The decoded data includes the IP address of the SM-SR server and a KVN value of an OTA key value for making an OTA session with the SM-SR server, and the eUICC 202 creates a secure channel along with the SM-SR 212 by utilizing the decoded data, download the profile created by the SM-DP 211, and decode the downloaded profile using an OTA key to preserve the decoded profile in the interior of the eUICC 202. After the profile is installed, the corresponding profile is managed using the OTA key of the MNO 220, and the contents modified by the management cannot be opened to the outside for security reasons.
FIG. 3 is an example diagram for explaining problems of the related art to be solved according to this disclosure. In FIG. 3, a description will be made under the assumption that a profile has been installed in an eUICC of a terminal through the process of FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 3, eUICC related information, such as the phone number of the terminal 330, is modified. Specifically, in step 301, the information including the phone number (MSISDN) of the terminal 330 is modified by a selection of a user or a determination of an MNO 300. In more detail, the MNO 300 remotely modifies the information of the eUICC in the terminal 330 using a unique OTA key thereof. Or, according to step 302, the user directly selects a profile to which he/she wants to connect through a UI of the terminal 330 and switch an operating profile from an existing profile to another profile. The process of switching the profile is a process of switching the existing profile to a disabled state and switching a new profile to an enabled state. At this time, the existing profile is also deleted.
In cases where the information such as the MSISDN of the terminal is modified according to step 301 or 302, the MNO 300 and the eUICC know about the modified information, but an SM-DP 310 or an SM-SR 320 that actually manages a profile fails to receive an update on the modified information so that the MNO 300 may not perform profile management based on OTA technology afterward.